Kind of off-topic, but I work with folks who've never heard of the Ides of March. I quoted a Wayne and Shuster sketch on March 15 (Canadian folks may know it - "Don't go, Julie, don't go! It's the Ides of March; BEWARE already!"), and boy, did I get some weird looks.

I'm Australian and I remember at play when I was in school. I played Calpurnia and said that line

He is already in trouble with WalMart for shoplifting beer, but after the last sentence of the article, I would think he would be in worse trouble with his wife.

And he thinks the Alabama establishment is out to get him??? He has done a great job on his own.

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"The Universe puts us in places where we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are, it's the right place and the right time. Pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born." - Delenn to Sheridan: "Babylon 5 - Distant Star"

A crook that thinks his position means he gets to steal. Brett is 5 yo and knows you don't eat food in the grocery story - until you paid for it. I had to assure him 3 time that it was ok for us to put money in the honor box at the Brack's display at the grocery store. (I was coughing and decided to grab a mint to stop the tickle. So I told the kids that could have a piece and gave them money for the honor box)

A grown man knows that you don't open a sealed container, eat out of it, then put it back. I don't buy for a second that he forgot -he is just an entitled jerk. I hope they don't drop the charges, maybe up them to product tampering for opening a sealed container and putting it back. Him calling his wife lazy in an interview is just another nail in the coffin.

The other day I found myself at the store without my pen. I had made my list with it and thought I'd put it in my purse and didn't realize till we got there that I'd forgotten. Well since I write down how much each item costs so we don't go over our budgeted amount, I needed a pen and got a pack from the stationary aisle and opened it, putting the package in my cart. The kids were shocked but I explained it was okay so long as you pay for it.

Which I did. I needed new pens anyway. I don't like eating in the store though so don't eat anything I've bought until it's paid for.

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Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

My youngest worked as a server in a bar while she was attending college. This particular bar was hooked up to a restaurant and had an outside patio that was only open when the weather was warm.

So, she was working her shift and was the only server in the bar last February. The opening to the patio from the outside was blocked off with a chain, the chairs were stacked on top of the tables and everything was covered with several inches of snow and ice.

Which seems to have been the equivalent of a sign that of course the patio was open for service. She heard someone pounding on the inside door between the bar and patio (which was locked and had several feet of drifted snow in front of it), went to the door to see that a group and pulled chairs off of the tables. They then screamed at her about the crappy service and demanded to be served NOW!

She told them she was sorry, but that the patio was closed and there was no service being provided outside. She got screamed and cursed at, so she shut the door, re-locked it and went back to serving the customers inside the bar.

The group from the patio then entered the bar and she hoped that they had given up, but no...they only entered the bar to scream at her and demand again that she serve them out on the patio.

This is the snow covered patio with the temperature in the low 20's that was not open!

Fortunately, the bar manager was a pretty no-nonsense sort and she told them they could be served inside the bar or the restaurant or they could leave. They chose to leave.

Having lived in Alabama for decades I can tell you he's considered both by many and to be getting odder by most residents. At east in my region of the state.

His behavior reminds me of my grandmother when she was in the early stages of dementia. That's the only reason why I didn't have an instant "self-entitled jerk" reaction.

While I read his justification and think it makes some sense, what occurs to me is... suppose you want to eat a handful of peanuts/cashews and don't want to pay for the container. What would you do? Probably get a bottle, take a handful, and put it in your cart. Then continue shopping for long enough that anybody who saw you eat that handful isn't around, doesn't remember, etc. Then you head back to where you got it and put it back. Which is exactly what he did. I think it was intentional, and he just had a good excuse if he got caught... that he forgot he took a handful. And yeah, the focus on the 22 cents is ridiculous, because it's ruining an entire jar of the nuts.

Ooh, I had a good one just recently. There was an awesome exhibition at a nearby museum. It had loads of old Greek and Roman stuff, and was really well put together. DH and I spent about six hours there, I think. It was lots of fun.

After we'd been there a while, we noticed one particular young man (he looked about 20) following us rather closely. DH and I would stop at a coin display or something and read everything and talk about the coins to each other. This strange man would also stop and pretend to look at the coins, until we moved on. Then his friends would catch up and he would replay everything DH and I said (we have an interest in these kinds of things, so we know a lot of weird trivia) to them, going on about, "oh, if you knew as much about these things as someone like me..."

His friends would ooh and aah, and then he'd stalk us to whatever display we were currently at and repeat the whole thing. It was very bizarre. We both decided quietly that we'd ignore it, since he probably wouldn't last too long--we take ages as we enjoy ourselves and like to take everything in, and most people would get bored if they tried to take as long.

At one point, there was a set of ancient records in Latin, over two thousand years old. DH is competent at ancient Greek, and I at Latin, so we normally translate for each other. This particular piece was nice and easy, and of course our shadow listened to everything. We move on as his friends catch up, and all of a sudden he comes storming over to us.

"How dare you! You guys are idiots!"

It turns out, he had forgotten what the translation was, so he'd made something up (he'd been making a lot of things up while showing off), but one of his friends knew enough school Latin to call him out on it. And so we are the bad guys because he can't remember a translation he eavesdropped on. Shame on us for upsetting the special little snowflake. The security guard shushed him, and he left shortly afterwards, proclaiming the exhibit to be boring and inaccurate (I'm not sure how authentic artifacts are inaccurate, but there you are). We giggled for quite a while.

Ooh, I had a good one just recently. There was an awesome exhibition at a nearby museum. It had loads of old Greek and Roman stuff, and was really well put together. DH and I spent about six hours there, I think. It was lots of fun.

snip

"How dare you! You guys are idiots!"

It turns out, he had forgotten what the translation was, so he'd made something up (he'd been making a lot of things up while showing off), but one of his friends knew enough school Latin to call him out on it. And so we are the bad guys because he can't remember a translation he eavesdropped on. Shame on us for upsetting the special little snowflake. The security guard shushed him, and he left shortly afterwards, proclaiming the exhibit to be boring and inaccurate (I'm not sure how authentic artifacts are inaccurate, but there you are). We giggled for quite a while.

Ooh, I had a good one just recently. There was an awesome exhibition at a nearby museum. It had loads of old Greek and Roman stuff, and was really well put together. DH and I spent about six hours there, I think. It was lots of fun.

After we'd been there a while, we noticed one particular young man (he looked about 20) following us rather closely. DH and I would stop at a coin display or something and read everything and talk about the coins to each other. This strange man would also stop and pretend to look at the coins, until we moved on. Then his friends would catch up and he would replay everything DH and I said (we have an interest in these kinds of things, so we know a lot of weird trivia) to them, going on about, "oh, if you knew as much about these things as someone like me..."

His friends would ooh and aah, and then he'd stalk us to whatever display we were currently at and repeat the whole thing. It was very bizarre. We both decided quietly that we'd ignore it, since he probably wouldn't last too long--we take ages as we enjoy ourselves and like to take everything in, and most people would get bored if they tried to take as long.

At one point, there was a set of ancient records in Latin, over two thousand years old. DH is competent at ancient Greek, and I at Latin, so we normally translate for each other. This particular piece was nice and easy, and of course our shadow listened to everything. We move on as his friends catch up, and all of a sudden he comes storming over to us.

"How dare you! You guys are idiots!"

It turns out, he had forgotten what the translation was, so he'd made something up (he'd been making a lot of things up while showing off), but one of his friends knew enough school Latin to call him out on it. And so we are the bad guys because he can't remember a translation he eavesdropped on. Shame on us for upsetting the special little snowflake. The security guard shushed him, and he left shortly afterwards, proclaiming the exhibit to be boring and inaccurate (I'm not sure how authentic artifacts are inaccurate, but there you are). We giggled for quite a while.

LOL This is an awesome story Reminds me of Joey going the wrong way through the museum haha

The other day I found myself at the store without my pen. I had made my list with it and thought I'd put it in my purse and didn't realize till we got there that I'd forgotten. Well since I write down how much each item costs so we don't go over our budgeted amount, I needed a pen and got a pack from the stationary aisle and opened it, putting the package in my cart. The kids were shocked but I explained it was okay so long as you pay for it.

Which I did. I needed new pens anyway. I don't like eating in the store though so don't eat anything I've bought until it's paid for.

I found out the hard way that's not always ok. I drank some of a Bolthouse Farms C-Booster drink while I was shopping. When I tried to go through the self checkout I found that the belt went over a scale. So I did scan the bottle, but because it weighed less than it was supposed to, I had to get someone over to override the scale. Of course I did this when it was the busiest time of the day to shop so there was a huge line behind me. I've definitely learned my lesson